Remarks by President McAleese At the unveiling of a plaque to Commemorate
Remarks by President McAleese At the unveiling of a plaque to Commemorate the former Tipperary Grammar School At the Abbey Schoo
A dhaoine uaisle, tá mé fíorbhuíoch de Bhord Bainistíochta na scoile as an chuireadh a thug sibh dom bheith anseo libh inniú. Ocáid chuimhneacháin í seo ar Scoil Erasmus Smith. Ta an-léiriú i scéal na scoile sin ar ghnéithe de stair chasta ár muintire.
I am honoured and delighted to be here with you today for this occasion to commemorate the former Tipperary Grammar School. I would like to thank the Abbey’s Board of Management for their thoughtful invitation and all of you for your wonderfully warm welcome.
While boning up on some of the wealth of history associated with the school, I was surprised to see your illustrious benefactor, Erasmus Smith, described as a ‘chancer’. Worse still it wasn’t just the usual begrudger’s dismissal of an able and successful person. There seems to be a general consensus that the description is fairly accurate. Some of the things he chanced were well worth whatever risks he took, whatever cynicism he had to endure, for most history-makers, most of those who shape history in some significant fashion are people who are not afraid to take a chance, to risk failure in order to achieve a vision that is worthwhile and enduring.
There is enough history, famous people and court cases associated with this school to fill a library. It is remarkably rich in stories and legends. Many members of the Church of Ireland hierarchy received their education in the Erasmus Smith School. You can also claim past pupils like Michael Slattery who became Archbishop of Cashel, the Fenian leader John O’Leary and Thomas McCarthy who was involved in founding the GAA. He would, I am sure, be very proud of the Abbey’s outstanding record in the sporting arena. I am particularly delighted to see here today Dr. Martin Mansergh, whose father and uncles were also past pupils of the school. No-one who knows Martin would ever describe him as a “chancer” yet he epitomises another type of history maker - the formidably talented servant of the people who works tirelessly and quietly behind the scenes to create the space in which the seeds of a better future are sown and nurtured. Martin is quite simply one of the Peace Process’s most distinguished and self-effacing architects. We all owe him a huge debt of gratitude and I take this opportunity to thank him for his unswerving, selfless and tenacious dedication to secure peace and reconciliation in our country.
‘The Friary’, The Erasmus Smith School’, ‘The Tipperary Grammar School’, ‘The Father David Humphreys Memorial School’, ‘The Abbey School’. That’s a lot of names for one school but they give us a glimpse of its own intriguing and complex story. That story, the history of the Tipperary Grammar School, in turn opens a window into our own history as a people. Not everything we see through that window is easy to live with but it is a past which cannot be rewritten or lived out again. Our history as a people has plenty of evidence of conflicts and vanities, of wasted lives, of the squandered energies used up by divisions of all sorts. Today, the past is a reservoir of insight - a place from which to select the stories which lift the heart, the courageous stories, the stories of leadership, of success which reassure us about the triumph of goodness. It is also a place from which we must also take the stories which reveal our darker side, for they tell us graphically what we need to acknowledge about ourselves, what we need to heal, to forgive and what we need to leave behind us so that we can create a happier, more humanly decent future. In acknowledging the truth of those past divisions, we can also accept their contribution to our collective experience. This making peace with our history can contribute in a special way to reconciliation and tolerance among all the diverse strands which make up this modern Ireland. Out of that peace has to come something more than mere tolerance of diversity but a genuine heartfelt joyful curiosity about the different traditions, identities, stories, beliefs, backgrounds which we all represent. Only that curiosity meets the gospel commandment to love one another, only that offers the respectful engagement with each other on which true friendship, true community spiritedness flourishes.
I know that the Board of Management wishes this event to be a genuine act of healing and acceptance of our past and of the different traditions on this island and I ask you to join with me in commending them for their initiative.
The need for a profound peace and reconciliation on this island is not confined to the North-eastern corner of the island. It is not the exclusive work of politicians. We each of us were shaped by a skewed history which distorted life and relationships on this island and between these islands. Every single one of us can do our bit to ensure the old toxins do not continue to contaminate the future. We can stop them in their tracks if we stop them in our tracks. If we do that, then the difficult work of the politicians will be that much easier.
They say that what is learnt in childhood is engraved on stone and so these precious years in which children cross the bridge to adulthood are crucial. From its roots as an Augustinian Abbey in the Middle Ages to the modern day Abbey CBS, this site has been an important centre of engraving on young lives. Each generation was prepared for life in a different Ireland. Each generation of teachers had to adapt afresh to a changing world and to bring young people carefully through periods of great upheaval, uncertainty, war and want.
Today’s world presents its own challenges and foremost among them is to infuse and enthuse this generation with a passion for the future and its possibilities, possibilities they will carry a lot of responsibility for. No other generation in Ireland has been given so much and none will be judged as harshly as this one by its children and grandchildren. The elimination of poverty is within its grasp, the achievement of peace is within its grasp, the creation of a generous, sharing Ireland that encompasses many traditions and cultures is within its grasp; other generations have kept the dreams alive but no other has been this close to living them. To get to this future we need young people of courage, and self-confidence, idealistic, unselfish, young people who believe in this republic of equals and commit themselves to making the lived lives, match the noble words. I know that you are contributing to that ideal by this commemoration here today. I hope that the Abbey School will continue to flourish and produce outstanding young people who care about developing their own talents to the full, who care about their families, their communities, their country and their world and who believe emphatically that one life lived well can make a difference and who are determined that they will live life well and they will make that difference.
Is mithid, go fíor, ár gcúl a thabhairt le haighneas agus le heasaontas na mblianta atá imithe, ár mbeannacht a chur leis na laethanta a bhí agus ár naghaidh a thabhairt go miumíneach ar an todhchaí. Go gcuiti Dia bhur saothar daoibh.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.